WHAT'S NEW IN

SHEBA'S GALAXY

01/18/04 - Added Matthew Wharmby's in-depth reviews of Saga of a Star World, Gun On Ice Planet Zero, Greetings From Earth, and War of the Gods to the episode guide. I'd like to really thank Matt for all of his contributions to this site over the past few years. He is a very talented (and hilarious!) writer, and it's always a pleasure to read his stuff. I also highly recommend you check out his Galactica 1980 episode reviews. No matter how much you may hate Galactica 1980, I guarantee his reviews will have you laughing loud!

01/06/04 - Judging from the internet alone, it would appear that the new Galactica is hated by everybody! However, I've gotten a number of emails from people who say that actually enjoyed it for what it was. Still, my fellow episode reviewer Matthew Wharmby said he hated it so much he didn't even make it through the first hour. Oh, well...

I've previously mentioned the recent news of what would happened had there been a second season of Battlestar Galactica. Here are some details:

Sheba was going to be killed off in the first episode of the second season. Commander Cain was going return only to have it revealed that he is an android!

Tigh and Baltar were also going to be killed off. The reduction of the cast was apparently going to be done to keep the budget down.

Boomer was suddenly going to become a doctor genius, as was Cassiopeia.

Athena was going to be badly burned, treated by Cassie with plastic surgery and come back just as beautiful but with an entirely different face. This would have been done so another actress could take over the role.

Apollo and Starbuck were going to switch roles-Apollo shirking his duties and becoming more involved with women. Starbuck was going to become Captain and be more serious.

Can I say once again thank god the show was cancelled when it was? What a horrible disaster it would have been if the series had went in this direction. You may remember Larson's other sci-fi series, Buck Rogers, which had a decent first season and then plummeted into an abyss in the second season after Larson completely changed the premise of the show.

For years, I've hoped that a Galactica video game would come out. From what I've heard of this new game, it's very difficult and frustrating to play. There was going to be Galactica video game when the series first came out.
It was by Mattel Electronics for the Intellivision home game console, but due to a lisencing snafu, it was released under the generic
title of "Space Battle" in 1979. It's currently available on the Intellvision Lives! collection for the PS2, and it's hard to play without
the original Keypad-hand controllers (no intutive d-pad interface here ... you have to call up a graphic of the original Intellivision keypad to give
attack commands to your fighter squadrons). Even without the lisence, it's obvious that the game is based on BSG ... especially when Cylon Raiders show up on your tactical display!).

Finally, here's something you may find interesting. It's a humerous spoof on the specs of a potential
DVD release of Galactica 1980.

11/02/03 - I've got the new Battlestar Galactica DVDs and they are incredible! Finally, we get to see the original pilot episode in its entirety. For years, only the theatrical version was available which had about 20 minutes of footage cut. Now the original has been restored. There's only one small segment of a man on fire on the Atlantia bridge which is missing, but that had originally been cut from the TV version anyway. There are several episodes which have not been available uncut since the show first aired such as The Living Legend, War of the Gods, Experiment in Terra, Greetings from Earth, Take The Celestra, and The Hand of God. I'm especially happy to have the complete version of The Living Legend.

What's even better about these DVDS is that there are over 3 hours of deleted scenes and outtakes! We get to see a number of scenes that are in my Missing Scenes section, but until now we could only imagine how they came out. One of the best deleted scenes is the original ending to Saga Of A Star World where Adama leads the survivors in a song. The scene reaffirms Serina's coming death from a cancer sickness, so it had to be cut when it was decided that Serina would not die.

The outakes are also a lot of fun because we get to see what it was like on the set. There are a couple of bloopers shown, but seeing how things were shot is VERY interesting, such as the actors sitting in the viper cockpit being given directions on where to look. We also get to see the chimp Eve who played Muffit, and during shooting there would be chimp sounds that had to be edited out later.

I am really shocked that Universal spent the money (which was likely tens of thousands of dollars) to add all these extras, since the DVDs probably would have sold just as well without them. Of course, the price of the set is higher as a result, but it is well worth every penny. I think this is one reason we should be thankful for the new Galactica mini-series from Ron Moore. If not for that, the DVDs might not have not been released, and even if they had, Universal might not have done such a great job on them.

10/17/03 - Sheba's Galaxy gets its 50,000th visitor!!!

09/12/03 - Sorry for the lack of updates, folks, it's just that I've kinda lost interest in Galactica this past year. I'm still a fan and all, it's just that I've spent a lot of time working on my new site for my good friend Zora Andrich of the hit reality show Joe Millionaire. The site is called Zora's Place and you can click here to check it out if you're interested.

Besides, how much bigger can this site get??? I think you could probably spend half your life reading through all the stuff I've got here. Anyway, I think this site is pretty much complete as it is. I don't plan to do much on the new Galactica that's coming out, as I'm satisfied with keeping this site focused on the original.

That doesn't mean I'm against the new Galactica. I know I'm in the minority here, but I'm definitely looking forward to the new Sci-Fi Channel version of Galactica. Any kind of revival should be interesting to see!

I've just reposted a Galactica article I wrote last year called The Galactica Curse. I think it's a good, enjoyable read. Hope you like!

03/16/03 - There is a great article called The Lost Season at Battlestar Zone about what plot developments might have occurred had there been a second season of Battlestar Galactica. The article also mentions that Glen Larson has said that BG would have been placed in the dreaded Sunday 7pm children's hour timeslot had it not been cancelled. If any of these things are true, then thank god Battlestar Galactica was canceled! It would have been truly horrible if it had to deal with all the non-violence standards and educational dialogue requirements that destroyed Galactica 1980. I'm happy with Sharon Monroe's amazing stories that continue the Galactica saga. Surely Larson and his crew of standard TV writers with no sci-fi background could never have come with the magnificent stories that she has!

02/06/03 - My current position on the Galactica revival is this: I don't really care.

If Galactica comes back - wonderful. If it doesn't - so be it. If it comes back as Ron Moore's reimagination - I will give it the benefit of the doubt until I see it. Many people have slammed the movie based on a reading of the script, but I think it's hard to make a judgement based on the script because there could be significant changes between now and the time the cameras start rolling. The quality of the cast and the special effects will also be a huge factor as to how good it will be, and we won't know about that until we see the final product. Remember that the original Galactica had some very poor scripts that were saved by the performances of the cast.

In the end, I just don't really care anymore. Whatever will be, will be. It's just a TV show and I don't want to waste any energy getting riled up over something that I just don't think is worth it.

In other news... I am having a blast watching "Joe Millionaire", and I hate reality shows! So why am I loving this one, you ask? Because one of the two women remaining on the show happens to be a very dear and close friend of mine - Zora!

That's right. The two of us have been good friends since high school. Zora is an aspiring actress, so I am very happy for her because she has become enormously popular with everyone watching the show (twenty million viewers is a lot of people!). I think this will do wonders to escalate her acting career. She has struggled long and hard with it, and it looks like things will finally pay off for her. No matter what the outcome of the show, Zora will be the true winner! Go Zora!!!

09/12/02 - Added Survive The Alliance to the fan fiction section. This is the ultimate crossover between Galactica and the 80s sci-fi series V (Visitors, remember?), not to mention numerous other 80s series such as A-Team, Knight Rider, Airwolf, and even Riptide and Misfits of Science! If you ever wondered what would happen if Starbuck met Face, then this is the story for you!

07/21/02 - Added Phoenix to the fan fiction section. This wonderful short story is another one of my all-time favorites! Featuring Apollo, it could potentially be seen as a set-up for the events of Galactica 1980. Check it out!

05/27/02 - Added The Way We Were to the collection of stories from Cain's Command. This is a new, never-before-seen chapter! Also added the classic story Another Chance by Sharon Monroe!

04/15/02 - Added Joint Maneuvers to the fan fiction section. This is next installment of the Pegasus Chronicles! Another must-read!

03/20/02 - Added My Father's Daughter to the fan fiction section. This is my favorite Sheba story! It gives a nice follow-up to the Apollo/Sheba love story that was never resolved in the final episode.

02/24/02 - Added The Race For Earth to the fan fiction section. This is my favorite Galactica fanfic story of all time! It provides a wonderful ending to the Battlestar Galactica saga that the TV series never did!

02/21/02 - Sheba's Galaxy gets its 25,000th visitor!!!

02/16/02 - Added Second Coming to the fan fiction section. For those who have yearned for a resolution to the Apollo/Sheba love story that was left hanging when the series was canceled, then this is a story you are sure to love!

02/10/02 - Added Cain's Command to the fan fiction section. Pegasus fans will absolutely love this one!!! The next installment of the Pegasus Chronicles, Second Coming, will be here soon!!!